Bishop Brendan Leahy has criticised the triumphalism of pro-abortion campaigners as laws come into force providing wide access to terminations. In an end of year message, the Bishop of Limerick criticised those who have been celebrating legislation that will lead to the deaths of many Irish unborn children. “A large percentage of those who voted…
State Papers: Echoes of the past from the archives On the 26 July 1975, Msgr Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer y Albás, Marquis of Peralta, the founder of Opus Dei, died in Rome. At once there began a movement to have his unique holiness recognised, and the desire to see him canonised was expressed by…
Letter from America In what has been one of the darkest years in the history of the American Catholic Church, it may sound strange to speak of highlights. Yet, as the storm clouds of the clerical sexual abuse crisis overshadowed much of 2018, and lingers into 2019, looking back on the past year reveals…
State Papers: Secrets of the powers that be The very real fear that the government, or at least the Taoiseach, Mr de Valera, felt in the summer of 1940 is a fact unintentionally revealed by some of the files. The trail through documents began with a query from Prof. R. Dudley Edwards in UCD…
Inés San Martín For a man who said that his pontificate would be a short one, Pope Francis is showing no signs of slowing down at the beginning of his seventh year as the successor of Peter. In many ways, 2018 was a roller coaster for the Argentine Pontiff who turned 82 on December…
State Papers: Secrets of the powers that be The war in Europe came to an end on May 7, 1945, but Europe remained (and perhaps remains) haunted by the consequences. In the current harvest of files a couple relate to aspects, not so much of the immediate aftermath, but of later years. Two episode…
State Papers: Echoes of the past from the archives To lose one of Ireland’s leaders, albeit, in symbolic form is an odd thing to do. But Dáil Éireann managed it. On June 22, 1987 Tom Ryan RHA, then the distinguished president of that academy, rang the Taoiseach’s department in Mr Hughes’s second term as…
A Pakistani court sentenced Christian brothers Qaisar and Amoon Ayub to death for blasphemy after they were convicted of insulting the Islamic prophet Mohammed in articles and portraits posted on their website. Qaisar (44) and Amoon (38) have been held in Jhelum District Jail, Punjab province, 200km north of Lahore, since they were arrested in…
State Papers: Echoes of the past from the archives The value of these annual releases is not always to understand the immediate past, as so many journalists seem to think, but to cast light on obscure matters over the last two centuries. People abroad often write directly to the government seeking information, often about…
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has ordered a review into the plight of persecuted Christians around the world and how much help they get from the United Kingdom. The review, to be led by the Anglican Bishop of Truro Philip Mounstephen, will look at government efforts to help some of the 215 million Christians who…